Supreme Court will review its Sabarimala order

A batch of review petitions against the September 28 verdict that ended the ban on entry of women in the 10-50 age group into the shrine, will be heard Tuesday. NDTV delivers reliable information across all platforms: TV, Internet and Mobile. The court made it clear that the new cases would be heard once a decision is given during the day on the review petitions. After the orders on the review petitions, we will deal with these writ petitions. The Kerala government on the other hand which has vowed to implement the verdict said that it has not yet decided on what to do.

A plea filed by National Ayyappa Devotees Association (NADA), which has sought review of the verdict, had said that "the notion that the judgment under review is revolutionary, one which removes the stigma or the concept of dirt or pollution associated with menstruation, is unfounded". Legal experts also said that since no stay has been clamped on the operation of the earlier verdict, it was up to the government to decide whether to allow women entry into the shrine pending a final order.

On September 28, a five-judge constitution bench headed by then Chief Justice Dipak Misra, in its 4:1 verdict, had paved the way for entry of women of all ages into the Sabarimala Temple saying the ban amounted to gender discrimination.

Three fresh writ petitions on the issue filed by G Vijayakumar, S Jaya Raj Kumar and Shylaja Vijayan were also scheduled to be heard by a bench comprising of Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi, J Sanjay Kishan Kaul and J KM Joseph in the Court of the CJI at 10 AM on Tuesday.

Last month, when two women came in the vicinity of the entrance to the temple, the tantri threatened to close the shrine. There are around 50 petitions seeking review of the judgement.

Both the Congress and the BJP said they will continue their protests and oppose any move to flout temple customs. The question remains whether Justice Khanwilkar, with no strong views of his own on the matter, is likely to be persuaded to change his views during the open hearing on January 22.